The Queen's Cup eBook

A splattering fire of musketry now broke out from
the brigantine. They had lessened their distance
by half when they saw the brigantine, without apparent
cause, heel over. Farther and farther she went
until her lee rail was under water.

The firing instantly ceased, and there were loud shouts
on board; then, as she came up into the wind, the
square yards were let fall, and the crew ran up the
ratlines to secure the sails. Simultaneously the
foresail came down, then her head payed off again,
and she darted away like an arrow from the boats.

These, however, had ceased rowing. Frank, as
he saw the brigantine bowing over, had shouted to
Purvis to put the boat’s head to the wind, doing
the same himself. A few seconds afterwards the
squall struck them with such force that some of the
oars were wrenched from the hands of the men, who
were unprepared for the attack.

“Steady, men, steady!” Frank shouted.
“It won’t last long. Keep on rowing,
so as to hold the boat where you are, till the yacht
comes along. It won’t be many minutes before
she is here.”

In little over a quarter of an hour she was seen approaching,
and Frank saw that, in spite of the efforts of the
men at the oars, the boats had been blown some distance
to leeward. However, as soon as the lanterns
were held up the Osprey altered her course, and the
captain, taking her still further to leeward, threw
her head up to the wind until they rowed alongside
her.

Frank had by this time learned that one of the men
in the bow had been killed, and that three besides
himself had been wounded. Two were wounded on
board the dinghy.

“So they have got some guns,” the skipper
said, as they climbed on deck. “No one
hurt, I hope?”

“There is one killed, I am sorry to say, and
five wounded,” Frank replied; “but none
of them seriously. I have got a bullet in my
shoulder, but that is of no great consequence.
So you got through it all right?”

“Yes, sir, it looked so nasty that I got the
square-sail off her and the topsail on deck before
it struck us, and as we ran the foresail down just
as it came we were all right, and only just got the
water on deck. It was as well, though, that we
were lying becalmed. As it was, she jumped away
directly she felt it. I was just able to see
the brigantine, and it seemed to me that she had a
narrow escape of turning turtle.”

“Yes, they were too much occupied with us to
be keeping a sharp lookout at the sky, and if it had
been a little stronger it would have been a close
case with her. Thank God that it was no worse.
Can you make her out still?”

“Yes, sir, I can see her plainly enough with
my glasses.”

In a quarter of an hour the strength of the squall
was spent. The wind then veered round to its
former quarter, taking the Osprey along at the rate
of some five knots an hour.

The wounded were now attended to. George Lechmere
found that the ball had broken Frank’s collarbone
and gone out behind. Both he and Frank had had
sufficient experience to know what should be done,
and after bathing the wound, and with the assistance
of two sailors, who pulled the arm into its place,
George applied some splints to the broken bone to
keep it firm, and then bandaged it and the arm.